My first "published" game

[dougo]

I keep forgetting to mention: The Third Ice Game Design Competition has started, and one of the 11 entries is my game Quintazone. It's a simple tile-laying game using Aquarius cards and Icehouse pyramids, vaguely inspired by Carcassonne. I haven't looked at the other entries in depth yet, but my impression is that the competition will be tough. Not that there's any prize for being voted the best, but it would be sort of cool to win. But I'd also be happy to find other Icehouse games that are better than mine.

Comments

[stoneself.livejournal.com]

so mel, albert, and oj tried out quintazone.

general consensus: not bad, but not exciting.

comments: too few cards, not enough options to do thing.

suggested improvements: none from the group.

observation: it must be interesting though, because everyone around the table was studying the board and concentrating hard.

* * *

my comments:
- the initial set up rule (place four cards) is unclear. set them up how?
- maybe use two aquarias cards (with some duplicat full field cards removed).
- as a one time thing let players place their goal card as a full field card. it's a powerful thing to do, but balances because it reveals their bonus.
- maybe use the actions cards, but let them do things like move a play card to a legal new position, or rotate a card as long as the rotation keeps a legal connection to at least one card.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

The initial set up is one card with four panels (to maximize the initial options).

I agree it's not terribly exciting, but I wanted to keep it simple. I think there are some subtle strategic things, though, that may not be apparent on first play. Merging your own pyramids into the same region, for example, can be a way to score big (since every pyramid scores its entire region), but it can require some planning ahead. That's why I made the hand size 5 (as opposed to 3 in Aquarius). One option worth considering is to deal out the entire deck to start with; this might alleviate your concern about too few cards. (Unless I'm misinterpreting-- do you just mean the game is too short with only a single deck?)

[stoneself.livejournal.com]

Unless I'm misinterpreting-- do you just mean the game is too short with only a single deck?

too short kinda. not enough time/cards to have more than attempted plans. tactical plans are very fragile in the game, and there isn't enough time to attempt a recovery from multiple failures.